‘Suitcase killer’ in line for payout after unlawful strip-search in prison

A killer is in line for a damages payout after having her human rights violated by an unlawful strip search.
Samantha Faulder, 57, is serving a life sentence for the murder of Richard Emery, whose body was found stuffed in a suitcase in Bournemouth in 2008.
Faulder brutally beat Emery to death, breaking his ribs, puncturing a lung and stuffing socks down his throat.

Richard Emery was brutally beaten to death and stuffed in a suitcaseAnother man, Richard Ormond, was also found guilty of his murder and is also serving a life sentence.
But now Faulder and three other inmates at the privately-run Peterborough Prison have claimed damages after being subjected to intimate strip searches.
Sodexo, which runs the prison, admitted there was a ‘systemic failure’ and that searches breached their privacy rights.
Girl, 13, found hanged could have been saved as coroner rules out suicideA top High Court judge has ruled the Ministry of Justice also had responsibility for failing to ensure that Sodexo staff were properly trained.
The prisoners involved in the case include a transgender inmate who was born female, but is in the process of transitioning to male.
Another suffered deep ‘humiliation and embarrassment’ because she was menstruating when searched, the court heard.

Faulder is being held at HMP Peterborough (Picture: PA)

Richard Ormond was also found guilty of Richard Emery’s murderFaulder is the only prisoner who can be named as she did not request an anonymity order.
The searches were carried out at the jail in July and September 2017 and, on one occasion, ‘at least 12 individual officers’ were involved.
Officers also opted to conduct strip searches without first conducting rub downs or using hand-held metal detectors.
Sodexo said the searches were ‘based on intelligence’, but the judge argued they were ‘routine’ and guards ‘defaulted to the most intrusive form of search.’
Mr Justice Julian Knowles said the amount of damages payable to the four by Sodexo will be assessed later at a County Court hearing.
The company denied the searches amounted to inhuman or degrading treatment and said strip search procedures have been reviewed since ‘new safeguarding measures’ were introduced.